Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The Keaton brouhaha was concluded in a less than perfect fashion. Stewart Flood finally presented his 23 pages of evidence to support his "Resolution of Discipline" on Saturday morning, leaving The Keaton no time to prepare a defense, nor any other members of the Committee to digest it.

The implications of this became very clear after the presentation, when one member of the Committee discovered that being named as an administrator on a Facebook page (especially since this can be done without any input from the person being named) does not constitute being an officer in the party, nor necessarily "providing material support".

After much emoting by Stewart, Michael Jingozian moved that we constitute a "Dispute Resolution Committee" and that he populate it the following morning. That motion passed, and the members of the committee are Michael Jingozian, as non-voting Chair; Rachel

There was a lengthy discussion on the budget, and an Executive Session on the budget, and from the numbers presented in Open Session, it was obvious that the LP needs major fundraising. If you want the LP to continue, if you appreciate the only political party that does promote Liberty, if you recognize that the LP is the political arm of the libertarian movement, please go to LP.org and make a donation, or better yet, call Louise at (202) 333-0008 and make a monthly pledge. Either mention my name, or shoot me an eMail and let me know that you've done it, please.Then some good news - on coming out of Executive Session, Pat Dixon moved that the LNC move money previously appropriated for the inheritance lawsuit to support Washington's "Top Two" lawsuit. The motion was overwhelmingly approved, with only Aaron Starr voting against it.

The LNC also approved this resolution without objection . . .

RESOLUTION CONDEMNING DOMESTIC DEPLOYMENT OF U.S. MILITARY

WHEREAS, the domestic deployment of 20,000 uniformed military personnel planned by the United States government undermines the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which forbids the use of the military for domestic policing; and,

WHEREAS, such a deployment is an alarming example of the increasing militarization of our society; and,

WHEREAS, the increasing use of active duty military personnel, has, and will, lead to the abuse of American civil liberties, such as violations of the Fourth Amendment; and,

WHEREAS, a state's National Guard (not active duty members of Army combat units) is the appropriate authority to handle local emergencies and disasters should they arise; and,

WHEREAS, the use of the 3rd Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team during a time of war puts further tension on an already strained U.S. military.

THEREFORE, be it resolved, the Libertarian National Committee and its undersigned members hereby condemn the plans of the federal government to deploy 20,000 active duty members of the U.S. military to serve, for whatever reason, domestically in the United States.

Furthermore, the Libertarian National Committee calls for the immediate abandonment of these plans, and instead suggests that should an emergency response team comprised of members other than local emergency responders (fire, police, HAZMAT) be developed and trained, it consist of members of the National Guard not active duty personnel of the United States military.

The Libertarian National Committee calls for the citizens of the United States to protest this militarization of our society, and its encroachment on American civil liberties, to their local, state and federal representatives.

This resolution originally came from Austin Peterson - I found reference to it on Facebook, and presented it to the LNC. The final version was written by Andrew Davis.

I want to especially recognize Austin's leadership in this matter . . .

And on Monday, Angela Keaton resigned from the Libertarian National Committee, citing the negativeeffects on her real job, and on her health.